[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 170 (Friday, September 1, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 46004-46006]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-21773]
[[Page 46003]]
_______________________________________________________________________
Part VI
Department of Education
_______________________________________________________________________
34 CFR Part 75
Direct Grant Programs; Proposed Rule
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 170 / Friday, September 1, 1995 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 46004]]
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
34 CFR Part 75
RIN 1880-AA69
Direct Grant Programs
AGENCY: Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: The Secretary proposes to amend the Education Department
General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) that govern discretionary
grant programs. These proposed amendments would reduce the need for
specific regulations governing individual programs. The proposed
amendments would authorize the Secretary to establish selection
criteria for a discretionary grant program based on provisions in the
statute authorizing that program and on existing selection criteria in
EDGAR. The amendments also would clarify the Secretary's authority to
establish annual funding priorities for grant competitions.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before October 2, 1995.
ADDRESSES: All comments concerning these proposed regulations should be
addressed to Jacinta Ma, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence
Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20202. Comments also may be sent through the
Internet to Selection __ Criteria@ed.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Jacinta Ma, U.S. Department of
Education, 600 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20202-2241.
Telephone: (202) 401-8300. Individuals who use a telecommunications
device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay
Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern
time, Monday through Friday.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: These proposed amendments would allow the
Secretary to establish selection criteria based on statutory
provisions, clarify the Secretary's authority to establish one or more
annual priorities, and allow the Secretary to establish the maximum
score for each selection criterion on a competition-by-competition
basis. The proposed amendments also would conform existing regulations
in Secs. 75.1 and 75.200 to reflect the additional method for
establishing selection criteria.
In addition, the proposed amendments would eliminate requirements
in Sec. 75.101(c) that are unnecessary. The inclusion of the
information required by Sec. 75.101(c) in an application notice is
already adequately provided for in Sec. 75.101(a).
The following is a summary of the major provisions of the proposed
amendments.
Section 75.105 Annual Priorities
The Secretary proposes to amend Sec. 75.105 to clarify that if a
statute authorizing a program includes one or more specific priorities,
the Secretary may establish those priorities as annual funding
priorities without first submitting them to public comment. Statutory
priorities include provisions that require the Secretary to give
preference or special consideration to certain applicants. Because
these priorities are established by statute, public comment could
affect only the way the Department implements the statutory priority,
e.g., what weight to give to the priority or choosing among priorities.
This amendment would codify the Department's long-standing
interpretation of the current provisions in Sec. 75.105 regarding
priorities. In addition, the proposed regulations would allow the
Secretary to establish without public comment annual funding priorities
selected from allowable activities specified in a program statute
assuming that there is legal authority to establish this type of
priority. Through these amendments, the Secretary would be able to
assign an appropriate weight to the statutory priority or priority
selected from allowable activities, and, in an application notice
published in the Federal Register, indicate how the priority will apply
to the particular competition.
Sections 75.200, 75.201, 75.209, and 75.210 Selection Criteria
EDGAR provides selection criteria for choosing among competing
grant applications (34 CFR 75.210) under programs that do not have
implementing regulations or have implementing regulations that do not
include selection criteria. However, the EDGAR selection criteria are
necessarily very general, and for some programs the EDGAR criteria may
not adequately enable reviewers to evaluate the extent to which grant
applications respond to specific provisions contained in the program
statutes that govern the competitions. Therefore, in an effort to
create more targeted selection criteria in appropriate situations and
to reduce the amount of rulemaking for discretionary grant programs,
the Secretary proposes these amendments to Part 75 to authorize the
Secretary to establish selection criteria for a grant competition based
on the authorizing statute. The Secretary believes these amendments
will reduce the amount of rulemaking for discretionary programs
because, in the past, the Department regularly had to develop program-
specific regulations to meet the need for more specific selection
criteria.
The Secretary proposes a new provision (Sec. 75.209) that would
allow the Secretary to establish selection criteria based on statutory
provisions. For example, the Secretary could establish criteria based
on provisions such as specified statutory selection criteria, allowable
activities, application content requirements, or other pre-award or
post-award conditions. The new selection criteria would mirror
statutory language and the Secretary would evaluate each application to
determine how well the applicant's proposed project meets each of the
criteria. The Secretary has already published a notice in the Federal
Register (March 7, 1995 at 60 FR 12648) authorizing this procedure for
conducting certain FY 1995 grant competitions under the Improving
America's Schools Act of 1994.
If a program does not have implementing regulations establishing
selection criteria or has implementing regulations that do not include
selection criteria, these amendments would authorize the Secretary to
evaluate applications by applying the general selection criteria in
part 75, selection criteria based on provisions in the authorizing
statute for the program, or a combination of these criteria. These
amendments would also allow the Secretary the flexibility to weigh the
criteria according to the needs of each individual competition.
Rather than establishing in regulations the total number of points
an application may receive and the maximum number of points that an
application may receive for a particular selection criterion (either
established from a statutory provision or found in EDGAR), the
Secretary will notify applicants of the total possible score and the
maximum points for each selection criterion in the application package.
If no point allocation is specified, the Secretary would assign an
equal maximum value to each selection criterion.
Because the selection criteria would be included in an application
package, the criteria would be subject to prior public comment in
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. That statute
requires the Department to publish in the Federal Register a notice of
proposed information collection that solicits public comment. Anyone
who wishes to comment may contact the
[[Page 46005]]
Department and obtain a copy of the proposed application package.
The Secretary proposes to preserve Sec. 75.210 of EDGAR, which
establishes general selection criteria, except that the maximum point
value assigned to each selection criterion would be removed to allow
for the proposed process of assigning a maximum possible point value to
each criterion according to the needs of the competition. In addition,
because the Secretary would be able to weigh each criterion by
establishing the total number of points and assigning a maximum
possible point value to each selection criterion, there would no longer
be a need to retain Sec. 75.210(c), which allows for the distribution
of an unassigned 15 points among the criteria in Sec. 75.210(b).
Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification
The Secretary certifies that these proposed regulations would not
have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small
entities.
These regulations could affect States, State agencies, and
individuals. States, State agencies, and individuals, however, are not
defined as ``small entities'' in the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
The small entities that could be affected by these regulations are
institutions of higher education, local educational agencies,
community-based organizations, and nonprofit organizations receiving
Federal funds under a direct grant program. The proposed regulations,
however, would not have a significant economic impact on these
entities, if affected, because the regulations would not impose
excessive regulatory burdens or require unnecessary Federal
supervision. The proposed regulations would impose minimal requirements
for the Secretary to select grantees.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980
The proposed amendments have been examined under the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1980 and have been found to contain no information
collection requirements.
Intergovernmental Review
Some of the programs that would be affected by these regulations
are subject to the requirements of Executive Order 12372 and the
regulations in 34 CFR part 79. The objective of the Executive order is
to foster an intergovernmental partnership and a strengthened
federalism by relying on processes developed by State and local
governments for coordination and review of proposed Federal financial
assistance.
In accordance with the order, this document is intended to provide
early notification of the Department's specific plans and actions for
these programs.
Invitation to comment
Interested persons are invited to submit comments and
recommendations regarding these proposed regulations.
All comments submitted in response to these proposed regulations
will be available for public inspection, during and after the comment
period, in Room 5100, 600 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC,
between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday of
each week except Federal holidays.
Assessment of Educational Impact
The Secretary particularly requests comments on whether the
proposed regulations in this document would require transmission of
information that is being gathered by or is available from any other
agency or authority of the United States.
List of Subjects in 34 CFR Part 75
Administrative practice and procedure, Continuation funding,
Education, Grant programs--education, Grants administration,
Incorporation by reference, Performance reports, Reporting and
recordkeeping requirements, Unobligated funds.
Dated: August 28, 1995.
Richard W. Riley,
Secretary of Education.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number does not apply)
The Secretary proposes to amend part 75 of Title 34 of the Code of
Federal Regulations as follows:
PART 75--DIRECT GRANT PROGRAMS
1. The authority citation for part 75 is revised to read as
follows:
Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e-3 and 3474, unless otherwise noted.
2. Section 75.1 is amended by revising the Note to read as follows:
Sec. 75.1 Programs to which part 75 applies.
* * * * *
Note: See part 76 for the general regulations that apply to
programs that allocate funds among eligible States. For a
description of the two kinds of direct grant programs see
Sec. 75.200(b) for a description of a discretionary grant program
and Sec. 75.200(c) for a description of a formula grant program.
Also see Secs. 75.201, 75.209, and 75.210 for the selection criteria
for discretionary grant programs that do not have implementing
regulations or whose implementing regulations do not include
selection criteria.
Sec. 75.101 [Amended]
3. Section 75.101 is amended by removing paragraph (c).
4. Section 75.105 is amended by removing the word ``or'' following
paragraph (b)(2)(ii), replacing the period at the end of paragraph
(b)(2)(iii) with a semicolon, adding new paragraphs (b)(2)(iv) and
(b)(2)(v), and revising the first sentence in paragraph (c)(2)(i) to
read as follows:
Sec. 75.105 Annual priorities.
* * * * *
(b) * * *
(2) * * *
(iv) The program statute requires or authorizes the Secretary to
establish specified priorities; or
(v) The annual priorities are chosen from allowable activities
specified in the program statute.
(c) * * *
(2) * * *
(i) The Secretary may award some or all bonus points to an
application depending on the extent to which the application meets the
priority. * * *
5. Section 75.200 is amended by revising paragraph (b)(3) to read
as follows:
Sec. 75.200 How applications for new grants and cooperative agreements
are selected for funding; standards for use of cooperative agreements.
* * * * *
(b) * * *
(3) If a discretionary grant program does not have implementing
regulations or has implementing regulations that do not include
selection criteria, the Secretary uses one of the following to evaluate
applications for new grants under the program:
(i) Selection criteria established under Sec. 75.209.
(ii) Selection criteria in Sec. 75.210.
(iii) A combination of selection criteria established under
Sec. 75.209 and selection criteria in Sec. 75.210.
* * * * *
6. Section 75.201 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 75.201 How to use the selection criteria.
(a) If points are assigned to the selection criteria, the Secretary
informs applicants of--
(1) The total possible score for all of the criteria for a program;
and
(2) The maximum possible score for each criterion.
(b) If no points are assigned to the selection criteria, the
Secretary evaluates each criterion equally.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e-3 and 3474)
7. A new Sec. 75.209 is added to read as follows:
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Sec. 75.209 Selection criteria based on statutory provisions.
(a) If a discretionary grant program does not have implementing
regulations or has implementing regulations that do not include
selection criteria, the Secretary may evaluate applications by--
(1) Establishing selection criteria based on particular statutory
provisions that may include but are not limited to--
(i) Specific statutory selection criteria;
(ii) Allowable activities;
(iii) Application content requirements; or
(iv) Other pre-award and post-award conditions; and
(2) Assigning the maximum possible score for each of the criteria
established under paragraph (a)(1) of this section.
(b) The Secretary reviews each application to determine how well
the applicant's proposed project meets each of the criteria established
under paragraph (a)(1) of this section.
Example: If a program statute requires that each application
address how the applicant will serve the needs of limited English
proficient children, under Sec. 75.209 the Secretary could establish
a criterion and evaluate applications based on how well the
applicant's proposed project meets that statutory provision. The
Secretary might decide to award up to 10 points for this criterion.
Applicants who have the best proposals to serve the needs of limited
English proficient children would score the highest under the
criterion in this example.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e-3 and 3474)
8. Section 75.210 is amended by revising the heading, removing
paragraphs (a) and (c), removing the point designations following the
italicized headings in paragraphs (b) (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), and
(7), adding undesignated introductory text, removing ``The criteria--''
in paragraph (b), and redesignating paragraphs (b) (1), (2), (3), (4),
(5), (6), and (7) as paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), and (g),
respectively, to read as follows:
Sec. 75.210 General selection criteria.
The Secretary may use one or more of the following selection
criteria, together with one or more criteria established under
Sec. 75.209, if any, to evaluate applications for new grants under a
discretionary grant program:
(a) Meeting the purposes of the authorizing statute. * * *
(b) Extent of need for the project. * * *
(c) Plan of operation. * * *
(d) Quality of key personnel. * * *
(e) Budget and cost effectiveness. * * *
(f) Evaluation plan. * * *
(g) Adequacy of resources. * * *
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e-3 and 3474)
[FR Doc. 95-21773 Filed 8-31-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
